This past week has been very eventful. I am so very thankful for having today off! I needed a day to decompress and think about all that has happened.
Last monday afternoon, someone attempted to break into our apartment. the perpetrators somehow had keys to the building and tried to get into our unit with a crowbar. The door and the door frame was damaged, especially the part that the lock goes into. I will try to figure out how to post pictures on here to show you. so, monday and tuesday we had the police, detectives and forensics here, checking out the apartment and our neighborhood, forensics took our finger prints and a DNA swab to rule us out and they found a good finger print. they are hoping to find it in the system to arrest whoever tried to do this.
thursday night, around 11pm, my first floor neighbor called me when i was sleeping and told me someone was trying to get into my husband’s work van. he usually drives one of the vans home from the funeral home. so i get up, tell dann and he runs downstairs with a hammer. apparently, the people were sniffing around my car too. there was a lexus and a BMW in between my 2002 dodge neon and dann’s funeral van. there is nothing valuable in our cars, except maybe parts. when dann got outside, the people had left and the cops came around the corner. they question dann about why he was outside with a hammer and what was going on. one of the neighbors across the street from our building called the police and they said that the people tried my car and dann’s work van. dann came back upstairs and watched out the window for awhile to see if the people came back. he saw a man and a woman, hispanic, wearing hoodies walk down the street. they looked up at our apartment, saw dann watching them and then turned around and walked back down the block.
here is our working theory about the whole situation. new tenants moved into the unit below us. they are not nice people. very ghetto, they smoke pot all the time and stink up the building. they moved in the day before our apartment was broken into, but late. they didnt even get to the building until 5pm. it was already dark, so thats red flag number one. we think whoever broke into our apartment helped these people move into the building and ended up copying the keys to get back in OR had a set from the new tenants OR the new tenants let them in. myself and the other tenants who have been living here have also seen a few different people in and out of that unit. i saw a hispanic woman leave their apartment on monday, after i had called the police about the damage to my apartment. she left their unit and walked by me on the stairs. when i described her to dann, he said that was the same woman he saw walking toward the building on thursday (we talked about all this over dinner on friday). he recognized the couple from a few months ago. they live on the next block and got into a fight in front of our building a couple months back, screaming about him getting out of jail. when we figured this out, we called the detectives and gave them the address of where that couple lives. sure enough, they both have a record of breaking into apartments, vandalizing cars and using drugs. theyve been arrested for all of these things before. we do not have definitive evidence that it was them that did this to us, but the detectives said most likely it was them. we believe we are being targeted because dann comes home in a suit every day, we both have cars and our backgrounds. apparently, we look like we have money. this couple has probably been watching us since may when we moved in. the detectives are investigating. we might have to go in and look at a line up if the cops find anything.
so, that 2/3 of my bad news. the last part is one of my professors from hunter college passed away this week. its been a blow to myself and all of my friends from hunter. we’re devastated. he had cancer, which i didnt even know about until this week. he was an amazing person. he was so passionate about music and made you listen to it in such a unique way. he was a composer and an historian. he wasnt afraid of sound. anything different, he knew how embrace it for what it was. he gave value to everything. he inspired so many of us. i was very fortunate to have played an eight hands piano reduction of composer Aaron Copeland’s “Hoe Down from Rodeo”. (for my non-musician readers, a reduction is when an arranger takes a large piece and scales it down for one instrument, usually piano. this piece is for full orchestra with many different types of instruments. my professor broke down the essentials of each part and wrote a piece for 4 piano players to play together on 2 pianos. that alone is simply amazing). that was one of my crowning achievements as an undergraduate music student. it was so much fun and such an amazing experience to sit and talk with the composer/arranger about how he created this reduction and how it should be played. he coach my piano quartet and it was amazing. if i can figure out how to get an audio file on here, i will share. my friends and i have all been mourning his loss together on facebook and are waiting to hear about the services. not one person has had anything negative to say about him. he fought for me to get into hunter’s master’s program for music education. he told me i had that spark to inspire students and he really fought hard for them to let me in the program. he was upset when they didnt accept me. he told me grade point averages are not everything. you cant teach passion. he was a wonderful person. we are all really at a loss right now and are wishing his family the very best. arrangements havent been made yet. we’ve been sharing stories on facebook and remembering what an inspiration he was. i guess he just wrote a piece and was working with choreographer Twila Tharp. i’m not sure if it was a piece or an opera, but he was doing amazing things. he is and will be greatly missed.
sigh in other news…
dann and i are still discussing babies. right now, i want to move before we start trying. i cannot and will not bring a baby into this building. way too much shady stuff happening here.
my friend danielle had her baby boy yesterday. he is precious and beautiful. i feel so happy for her.
work has been pretty good. had a great string instrument repair workshop last tuesday. the kiddos are enjoying the music i chose for their concert coming up in december. i even got the 4th grade hooked on showtunes :) one class asked if ive ever been in a show and i have, so now they think im famour and they want to see a video. im going to bring it in to show them. oh boy!
i need to get going on more of my graduate portfolio and studying for my midterm tomorrow. need to share notes with some classmates. hopefully, the week keeps looking up.
later!
~mana~
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